the passenger side headlight burnt out and no longer works. does anyone have experience dealing with this issue? do I need a whole new headlight or just the hid bulb? im not familiar with the workings of hid units. I would like to avoid the dealer bc im out of warrenty. I do have the extended acura care warranty though. is this covered? if not ill be going to a private mechanic. anyone have pricing info or anything that can help me out...thanks all

 

the acura care warranty says it covers an igniter under the electrical part of the contract. im assuming this refers to the igniter for the headlight...is there another igniter that is used for something else on the car or is it for the headlight?

i still dont know whats wrong with it yet...im having someone open it up and take a look hopefully soon. if the bulb burnt out, is there an easy way to tell if it was the bulb? will it look like a burnt out light bulb? any help appreciated

 

never seen a burnt out HID but from what I seen when they get old they turn blue, then purple.



I have aftermarket HIDs on my 3000GT and sometimes when I turn them on I get a slight flicker of orange as the right headlight warms up which I think the ignitors could be going bad since the kit is years old.

Have you noticed any flickering issues before hand? HIDs don't use filaments like halogen bulbs so there will be no way to visually tell if its burned out.


Try talking to your part department and see if they will let you try on a new bulb to see if it works.

 

no flickering ever. the car has 80000miles so im thinking something may have crapped out. never had any problems with the headlights. just today was the first time it didnt work. the high beam doesnt work either

 

well after reading this post https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-tl-2004-2008-93/do-you-need-replace-xenon-headlights-551065/ about the life of the bulb, i would like to think that its not the bulb and maybe something else like the igniter. since it seems that the igniter is covered under the extended warranty, i might as well take it to the dealer. it would suck if it wasn't the igniter and i just wasted extra money for the dealer to open up the headlight when i can take it to my friend first.....decisions decisions

 

go to the dealer and tell them that the headlight isn't turning on, they should check the igniter. If they determine it is the bulb, they shouldn't be charging you as it could have been the igniter or the ballast...

 

The bulb has a life way longer than the ballast. Output from the bulb turns pink/red a few days before it is about to go out. More and more people are loosing their ballasts recently, more commonly from 02-03 TL and 04 TLs, the 05s are next to go lol. Ballasts used in the 02-03 TL and 04-05 TL are the same, made by Mitsubishi Electric. Your ignitors are still good but the ballast is bad. This is due to the expected life of the ballast and since you have 80k miles on your I take you drive a lot at night hence the ballasts get used a lot.

Instead of going to the dealer I suggest finding a used ballasts.

 

the bulb was working fine one night and then dead the next. it didnt change color at all

is the ballast the same thing as listed here in number 8? (control unit) why is there 2 types of control units? are they different on each side?

http://www.hondapartsunlimited.com/s...itch=&hidIrno=

 

^^ 8 is for 2004-05 model and 21 is for 06+ models.

 

ok i see...but if u look at the link i provided, there is 2 number eights listed for the 2004 tl. there is also 2 number elevens for the igniter...each one has a different part number and a different price...do u know which one i would need?

 

i decided to take the headlight out to see if it was the bulb and it was. the bulb was shattered. there was little glass pieces all over the inside of the headlight. i have no idea how this happened. it was working fine one night and the next it just died.


here is the whole mess


i put the new d2s bulb in that my friend got through his shop. it doesnt really match the other bulb as far as color. the new one has a whiter look instead of a bluish tint like the original. is that because its brand new? here is the new bulb.



here is the old one



the new bulb looks cloudy inside the housing b.c its the original headlight case. the older bulb has a new headlight case bc it was cracked from an accident

i tried to get out as much glass as possible from the broken bulb but i couldnt get it all out. will that cause a problem?

 

A shattered bulb also means that it splattered all over the inside chrome finish of the projector. I would suggest opening the headlight, taking out the projector, opening the projector, washing the projector and putting everything back together.

Another suggestion is to upgrade to a set of new or equally used bulbs for matching color.

I have worked on headlights in the past which had the same problem i.e. shattered bulb.

Here is a picture of what the bowl looked like after I opened the projector .

 

i should of done that but i wasnt sure if i should of been taking those things apart if I really didnt know how to. i put the car back together already so i guess im going to leave it as is for now. if the color of the bulbs bothers me or doesnt provide equal light then ill change to differnent bulbs for both sides. i prefer a blue look. would that be a 8000k bulb?

 

ok now this is pissing me off. I turned the headlight on and off atleast 5 times before I put the bumper back on and everything worked fine. 3 hours later I turn the car on and the headlights and the same bulb doesn't work. I turn them off then on again and they work again...wtf...I drive for a while and then park. turn the lights off and on again to see what happens...and they don't work...wtf is goin on here

 

bad igniter or ballast, thats why the other bulb shattered...

 

unbelievable...i guess this a job for the dealer then since the igniter is covered under the extended warranty...i just hope this bulb i just bought didnt shatter. i guess ill take the bumper off, take the headlight out, check the bulb, put the old broken bulb in and bring it to the dealer like that with all the parts already off. hopefully that will save me some money

 

i opened up the headlight again and this is what happened to the new bulb..inside that little circle it looks like a burn mark and the metal inside is no longer connected...im guessing i have an electrical problem..anyone know what would cause this to burn like that?

 

incorrect starting voltage is my guess from the balast.

 

ok so then I guess it boils down to a bad ballast..going to the dealer tomorrow morning with the car dismantled and the headlight on my front seat...lets see what happens

 

Here's what your ballasts & igniters look like:

https://acurazine.com/forums/album.p...pictureid=1778

 

Any update libert69? Hopefully they dont try to say your warranty is VOID now cause of the fact that you installed an aftermarket bulb...dealers can be shady so I was going to say dont drive there with the car dismantled but I think its too late to say that if you've already gone to the dealer....

 

right before I was schedualed to goto the dealer, I decided to put the igniter that was on the broken bulb to other side to see what happens. I turned the lights on and off 3 times in about 5 minutes and the bulb popped
again. didn't shatter but burnt out. so I know I have a bad igniter. I bought an igniter and 2 philips bulbs off ebay. I also bought 2 crappy d2s bulbs for 25 bucks from ebay to put in first to see if everything works fine. I don't want to blow 2 expensive philips bulbs. I have a feeling the ballast is bad too.

so for now im going to replace the igniter and install the cheap bulbs for the time being to see what happens. im just hoping the ballast doesn't short out the igniter again...if that's what even happened in the first place.
then I need another igniter and ballast

so basically im taking a chance not buying a new ballast now and hoping its just the igniter. ill be installing everything on friday.

just an fyi...the igniter is covered under the acura extended warranty. I just didn't want to deal with the bs from the dealer and have them tell me I had to buy everything from them...meaning new bulbs and trying to get me for a new ballast as well. even if I didn't need it

 

i installed the new igniter and the new bulbs and everything seems to be working fine now. i hope it was just the igniter that was faulty and nothing else. only time will tell

 

I've posted this before, but here's the home diagnosis:

I get questions all the time about how to tell what went wrong when headlight systems fail. If you are a do-it-yourself kind of person, you can quickly diagnose the problem by swapping out parts from driver to passenger side, or vise versa.

Start first by checking your fuses. If they look fine, your problem could be the ballast (the larger metal box), the igniter (basically the cord from box to bulb) or the bulb. Troubleshoot by swapping them out between the driver and passenger side, and eliminating the problem part. Remember to wear clean cotton gloves when handling the bulb, as they can't have any contaminants on them.



I also recommend that you seal the connection were the igniter hooks into the ballast with clear silicone caulk when you install your new ballasts. The biggest killer of ballasts is moisture, and this is the most common point of entry. If you look at the part re-design in 2007, Acura put a HUGE rubber grommet on this connection to keep moisture out.